SpiritFest Recap: Practitioners Panel on Grace, Growth, and the Path of Healing

You can feel it when a spiritual gathering is more than a marketplace. Over Spring Equinox, we Tree Of Life SpiritFest in Bozeman, Montana, and we’re bringing you the heart of what made the day special: real community, real conversation, and practical tools that land in the body, not just the mind. After a quick recap of the event, we shift into a live panel with a beautifully diverse group of practitioners spanning Thai Yoga Therapy, Ayurveda, EFT tapping and Biotap, Chakradance, Kundalini Tantra, shadow work, Reiki, vocal alchemy, and intuitive development. 

The audience questions take us straight into the places most people are actually living: What’s the difference between grace and love when you’re trying to hold compassion and boundaries at the same time? How do you pick a modality when you’re dealing with long-term trauma, ADHD, hormone shifts, and a deep desire to find your voice? We talk about why the “one true path” idea can add pressure, how discernment works in real life, and why following the next right step often beats trying to get it perfect. 

We also explore grounding through stress as nervous system care and spiritual practice together, using breath, ritual, and radical acceptance to move from survival mode back into center. If you’re searching for energy healing, chakra balancing, somatic practices, tantra meditation, or a grounded approach to spiritual development, this conversation offers both perspective and tangible takeaways. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s craving community, and leave a review with your biggest question from the panel. 

If you're in Bozeman, MT, please join us for Tree of Life SpiritFest, Summer Solstice Edition, on Saturday, June 20th! 

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Transcript

Welcome To Wisdom Rising

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to Wisdom Rising, the podcast of Moonrising Shamanic Institute. Join shamanic Reiki practitioners Christine Rene and Chantel Ochoa as we dance between worlds of shamanism, mysticism, and energy healing. Each week we illuminate your path to self-sourced wisdom and attune you to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Welcome back to Wisdom Rising. I am excited to have our guest on today, Laura Sitzma. And we recently did a spring equinox event called Tree of Life Spirit Fest. And we had quite a crowd and we had a group panel discussion. And so the podcast is going to be on that panel discussion where we had audience members putting questions all day long. And it was a really beautiful, pretty large panel of people. And so I just wanted to bring Lauren on to kind of tell us a little bit about the event that we did and um upcoming possibilities.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Yeah, so um it was such a beautiful day, and um it was wonderful to see like um all the local localistic practitioners coming together and them networking with each other and people coming in and getting to meet them as well. And the whole purpose of it was really to do just that is to create that community of people that people may have been looking for a specific type of practitioner who could help them, and they just didn't even know where to look or um didn't know how to access that. And this facilitated it. And not only that, it allowed um a few of the practitioners to do workshops and not just like you know, buy things or um, you know, just take a physical thing home with you, but also that learning that you got to take home with you as well.

SPEAKER_05 2:01

Yeah, it was a very, I felt like that part of it was pretty unique compared to a lot of like other spiritual expos. I mean, one, it was a smaller, a smaller, more intimate group and space. And I feel like there were so many little pieces that got to be touched on. Not only did we have like this really beautiful entrance way of like retaily yet very like create your own do-it-yourself kind of thing. Yeah. And then there was also like people who were sampling cacao and and um promoting their uh cacao ceremonies, and we had readers and we had some really beautiful readers that were able to take people aside that were interested to do readings for them, and then we had the workshops.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

Exactly. And um, for me, like when I even when I was in Australia, I would be attending different spiritual expos, and I found that there was so much focus on the buying of the physical things rather than the development of the person themselves. So that's why I really wanted readers, I wanted um healers, uh, yoga instructors, like um, and then even if it was like um a product itself, it's you could talk to the person who created it, and you they could talk about their um upcoming retreats that you can attend as well. So it's not just about what you're gonna learn on that day, it's furthering it um outside. Um, and yeah, I wanted people to leave feeling like they were connected to themselves and then also connected to um other people in that community.

Workshops And Practical Healing Tools

SPEAKER_05 3:39

Well, and I think that was really where the sweet spot was because in the workshops, you really got to get engaged. Like we had probably 20 plus people who were like ready to go do the experience. And so we had our first workshop presenter was doing EFT tapping, and it was a did she what did she call it? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_04 4:01

Um, it's biotap. Biotap is like resetting a nervous system. So, like right from the get-go, it was showing these really practical tools that you could take home with you that not only you could benefit on the day and get that like that good feeling, that nice reset, you could take that home with you. And if you wanted to um reconnect in with that um practitioner, you could, you had that access. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

And she was doing demos off to the side and things. Yeah. And I I just feel like the that was the cool thing about the demos is that they felt really practical, somatic, um, experiential, yeah, something you could do for yourself. Like I offered chakra spinning. Um, Jim McDonald did um some chakra dance, like a demo for that. And then we also had Lou back who was doing um some tantric meditation, which was just really beautiful, like a Kriya type tantric meditation.

SPEAKER_04 4:58

Yeah, it was like a beautiful journey that you got to take for the day. And it didn't feel like you said, it was intimate. Um, we still had like, I think it was even more, it was like 30 people in that space. Like it was at um the sky or um space over near the water tower. But it's a beautifully curated space, and you're surrounded by blares and crystals, and um, it feels nice when you walk in there. So you're having this gorgeous experience that feels like you've just gone over to a friend's house and get and gathering for a really um fun party. And um yeah, you you just are just making friends and learning at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 5:42

Yeah, and I think that's what was happening. People were really feeling like I can sit down and talk to this person for 30 minutes and totally fine.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

You're not gonna get interrupted by like loud crowds or like something coming over the bedside.

Next Spirit Fest And How To Join

SPEAKER_05 5:56

Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah, absolutely. So I would love to hear a little bit about what you're hoping, hoping and envisioning for the next, and then we're gonna go right into our panel discussion where all of the workshop presenters, Lauren and a few others who were present, um, are going to be on the panel. They're they'll we'll start off by introduction. So everyone, you'll get to hear everyone um speak for themselves and their introductions and really listen to the wisdom that people were asking for that day.

SPEAKER_04 6:27

Yeah. It was a culmination of any additional questions that had built up over the day that they wanted to know about spirituality, about themselves, about development, about the workshops. Um, and they were just able to put them into a box over the day, and we just picked out a few choice ones that seemed perfect. And each one of us got to um, you know, have our two cents answer.

SPEAKER_05 6:52

Well, it was so fun because we each have different modalities, we each have very different backgrounds, and yet our answers were so complementary, they were so like in line with one another that it was really fun to kind of have that conversation to see, yeah, oh look, you're from a completely different background. Exactly. And yet here we're saying the same similar message, yeah, yeah, and from different angles.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

So it gave who whoever was asking those questions so many different ways for them to apply that to themselves. So I found that such a it, I I did find that really interesting as well, hearing um the answers from the other um panel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:33

So that's what's going on in Bozeman, Montana. And we'd love to invite you to our next experience, our next next Spirit Fest, which yeah, it's gonna be Yes.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Um Tree of Life Spirit Fest is um what I've called it in Tree of Life, as in like you know, the cycle of all of the elements. Um, you've got earth, air, fire, water, spring, summer, uh, fall, and winter. And I would like to do four of these a year on, you know, the equinox or the solstice. Um, so the next one will be the weekend of the 20th of June. So during summer. And uh each one's going to be slightly geared differently based on that, you know, that journey of like kind of growing from the ground. You come out of winter, you're springing out of the ground, and it is from the ground up, really. So summer will be uh maybe even more creative, it's going to be more active, music-based. You know, it's it's not just about the um the readings or the healers. I like bringing in creativity as well. So um it's open to creatives.

Panel Introductions And Modalities

SPEAKER_05 8:44

Yeah, and I feel like that's one of the beautiful things about the way you put on this, is that it would really, really honored the whole self. Exactly. And not just crown chakra. Yeah, it really is root to crown. And I think that's something that's really near and dear to my heart and what we do over here at Moonrising Shamanic Institute is really honoring the whole self and honoring the creative process and honoring an embodied experience. And so, yeah, we got a little flavor of it all. And I can't wait to see what comes for summer solstice. So if you're wanting to journey to Bozeman, if you're listening from out of town, um, feel free to what look at our uh show notes for those details. And otherwise, I'm sure we'll do another panel. So we'll be able to tune you in, zoom you in. So it'd be really lovely to have you and thanks so much for watching and following along. And thank you for having me once again. Absolutely. Yeah, so we had a really beautiful event here at Sky Oro today for a spirit of the tree of life spirit quest. And we wanted to come on to answer our questions that came forward today. So thanks for everyone out here who stuck around. Love that. And know that I would I would love for everyone just to go through and introduce themselves, their their modalities, um, and then we can get to questions that we might have.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Okay, my name is Mariah Reese. I have a practice called Mariah Reese Somaveda, where I do Thai Yoga Therapy as one modality, Ayurvedic diet and wellness counseling. And um, today we did a workshop with EFT or biotap uh tapping.

SPEAKER_05 10:38

It was so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Uh I am Lauren Sitzma and um uh I'm a theoretic tied alchemy. This is um the event that I wanted to put on, and these beautiful people came along for the journey, and I'm so grateful for that. I really am, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, more than the sum of its parts, basically. And uh that's what I believe in alchemy, where two things come together and the crossover creates something really special, and I love that about you guys. So thank you. Uh my background is I am a uh medium, a psychic and medical intuitive, and I really am interested in a range of things for anything creative. So uh my journey is to blend.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

My name is Lou. Happy to be here. Thank you for having us. I am the owner of Shift in Work with Lou. I do Kundalini Tantra teacher trainings, I do containers of soul retrieval um for Ayurvedic, and so many different modalities are intertwined in this. It's hard to name them all. So I'm happy to be here. Thank you, Christine.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Hi there, I'm Jim McDonald. I am a licensed chakra dance facilitator and also a sky dancing tantra teacher in training. Today we offer a beautiful sample of chakra dance. So it's lovely to be here and to be part of all this energy energy movement.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

I'm Lacey. Um, I am the owner of Mountain Ludge and Bozeman. Um it's an interesting thing always to put labels on who and what I am and what I do. If we're gonna try, um, I would say that um I too am an alchemist. And um I think I just I'm calling myself a shadow witch because I am so in love with shadow. So in love with the um experience of it, the truth of it, that I kind of just create a space for the shadow parts to come out and play and be seen and understood in different ways. And then kind of the alchemy piece of it, like Lauren was saying, that intersection, I loved that, how you said that. Um then kind of the goal and fire and purpose of those interactions can be felt and seen and really just helping people get in their tearness.

Grace Versus Love And Boundaries

SPEAKER_05 13:25

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like we all are doing that in our own unique ways, which makes us such a powerful group to come forward. And I'm Christine Renee, and I am a shamanic breaky teacher and trainer, and definitely playing in the priestess tantric arts as well. And um just when I first came in today, I have to point out how colorful we all are. Like we were very like, I was like, oh my gosh, this whole day was so much focused on moving energy through the chakras and from root to crown. And then I looked around and I was like, we got them all covered. We got it. I mean, yeah, you had the darkness. You have and the red, like you totally held the red and the black, and I loved that. And then I was like, look at all this orange and yellow and green and uh indigos and the purples. And I was like, oh, we've got it going on. So I I really did actually want to highlight that if you were watching this, like we are a colorful bunch right here, and I I just love that because it really does speak to um that that expansion of being comfortable in who we are, right? And so I just want to say um thank you for showing up as who you are, because I can totally see it. So we did have some a few questions that came through. So we're gonna get to those first. And then if anyone is watching online and you have questions for us, knowing um our our brief introductions, if you have questions, feel free to throw those into the chat. And we're just gonna go ahead and get started. Um we've got the more grace I find for others, the more I realize how much was given to me. How are grace and love alike and different? That's a that's a yummy one. Yeah, yeah. Love, different all the same.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

I think they compliment each other. Like there's a beautiful complementary energy, right? Can you repeat it again? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:37

The more grace I find for others, the more I realize how much was given to me. How are grace and love alike and different?

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Allowing, invoking grace for maybe someone else, having compassion, right? Yeah, it's so hard hard to tell.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

And I can see that turned around inward as well. Like, how much grace do I give myself? And that is like an act of self-love, right? Like giving, I I personally know that I have really high standards and struggle with perfectionism often. And so I can be hard on myself. And so when I can come to that place of giving myself grace, it is an act of love. And then I can do the same for others because everyone is on this spiritual journey, everyone's is a spiritual being in this human suit. And so if we can just remember that everyone is is trying their best and and really we don't know necessarily what everyone's going through. And so when we can give grace, it is a way of giving compassion and giving love to others, and so it's like I just feel it and see it and honor it as much as I can because it's such a beautiful, beautiful wave of energy in this earthly place.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

I something has come to mind, and I don't know it exactly, but I think in Greek there's three types of love. There's the all love, as in just love for everything, which I actually think is grace. And then you have like, you know, the the love, the passion love, and then eventually that that longing, deep knowing, like friendship over time. You can give somebody grace and understanding for who they are, but they don't get into the inner part of you. So that that's where the difference would be. Um, I kind of like give that like some people can get into the club, but not everyone gets behind the velvet rope. But they can have a drink, you know? Yeah, that's grace.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah. Tough love too. When we when we set boundaries, when we're holding a loving space for ourselves and we create a boundary, but maybe someone crosses that boundary. So then we give them grace because we are showing them love, we're showing them grace, and hopefully through that giving of grace, we can help them learn more love on their side. So maybe that transgression isn't committed again, or spiritual evolution and more love can grow.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

I kind of feel like grace is a pillar, an energy, a frequency, a container. Oh yeah. So I I feel like grace is like a pillar, it's a container, it's a frequency that allows the alchemy of love, right? Because there can be shadow sides of love. Right. There is a there's a truth to that. There, you know, when when we've experienced things, love can contain the shadow parts of all of it. And so for me, grace creates this energetic container to alchemize the shadow parts of love, right? To have the clarity, the truth of love. Let all of the pain, the trauma, the intensity of it fall. So you just get the clarity and the truth of it.

Choosing A Modality And Trusting Yourself

SPEAKER_05 19:19

Taking a breath, noticing if there is anything else alive in us for that question. Thank you for the question. Yeah. All right, moving to question two. With limited time resources, how does one know which modality will shift when there's long-term trauma, major life hormone hormone shifts, ADHD diagnosis, finding voice, healing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? How do we know the one true path? Is kind of the essence of what this question feels like.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

We don't always. And I think, at least through my perspective and training, I do traditional Vedic assessments. I take people's pulses, I interview them, I look at their health history, I listen to what their concerns and goals are. And depending on what their unique perspective and experience is, then I select things that resonate or that might that I feel might serve them well. It's hard to know. It's kind of like a big experiment. But when we listen to our hearts, we're usually, I think, guided in a direction that is of service. So that's that's how I figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

It's interesting when I hear that question. When I hear that question, it makes me think that the person's having a solar plexus thing, right? They can't make a decision. So I would actually probably recommend some sort of modality that works in this person's case on the solar plexus. But for other people, it's going to be a different analysis, like Mariah was saying. But that's what I'm hearing when I hear that question.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah, go ahead, Luke. I think it's a true tuning in to yourself. I mean, when you can almost a meditation in a way, right? Really listening in and feeling and and trying. I mean, it is a grand experiment. I can't tell you the amount of stuff, but I have tried, right? And continue to try and see and resonate with this, don't resonate with this. So yeah, truly attuning into your heart and your heart will know. Your heart will know.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

Yeah. I think uh being someone who has had many experiences that are not so great, it brought me to a it brought me to a place where I'm doing things because I want to, and that's it. It's because I want. To not because somebody says that that's what you're supposed to do, not because that's what female has to do, because I want to and I don't care how it turns out. I'll do it anyway. So, and that's how you find the things you do and do not. Because no matter what, you're doing the thing that you're meant to be doing, despite the outcome.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

We learned just as you talk about it, if you're I hear you say, like you trust the flow of things, you trust the truth of things, and and even the question in itself, there is an energy of kind of urgency to get it right, right? And and and know exactly what it's supposed to be, and there's only one path. And and energetically, that's kind of you know, not necessarily a trauma response, but when there's only one true path, I'm always like, hey, like what tells you there's only one? And if there isn't an openness for expansiveness and so many different paths, and each one, you know, feeding the whole together, you know, then that's something to even look at, right? And it does feel a little bit like, you know, it's hard to trust ourselves. Are you kidding? When everything around us has told us that we shouldn't trust our intuition from starting to finish, it's so hard. And so my response to that is there is no wrong decision, there is no wrong path, right? Each, each, each courageous act forward, whatever path you go to gets you closer to your truth. So it's not that one has more value than the other, you need one more than the other. It's really like everybody on this couch has said, which is find the way to ground in yourself and just follow where it takes you. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of badass people in a space and in the community.

FOMO And Ongoing Learning

SPEAKER_05 24:05

Right. And I think we all took numerous paths to get to where we are now, right? It wasn't like I'm gonna take my Reiki training and it's gonna be the one true thing I the only thing that I do for the rest of my life. It was something that I started with and then it opened up to the next thing and then next thing. It's like following the breadcrumbs, and you don't know where it's gonna get you. Like I was, I was having this um reminiscing and looking back at my memory of going, I remember 20 catching babies at a birth center while I was studying Reiki, like who does that at 20 to begin with? And then I was telling at 20 years old, I was teaching couples about birth control postpartum needs. And who knew that I was gonna end up taking a sexuality facilitator training? And who knew that I was gonna end up studying tantra later on? Like 20, that was 20, 20 plus years ago, right? And so it's like we don't know why we're doing the thing that we're doing when we're doing it necessarily. And then it will lead you down a path of going, I have exactly the right knowledge and wisdom that I need now to take care of the clients, the people in my life. And it can be so many things. Like I'm I've got so many, and I can't, I can't just say I am this. It's always hard, just like, how do I label myself? Like I have a smattering of certifications, and and they now they're all kind of mixed and jumbled together and mushed together. And I wouldn't want it any other way. I wouldn't want it any other way because it truly reflects the uniqueness of who I am. If I was just this part of it, it wouldn't be the totality of who I am. And so to the person who asked this question, it's like it's like take a breath, don't stress too much of getting it right or wrong. Listen to the next right step. It's just one more the first next step, and then the next next step. You don't have to do all of it right now. You have time. So I'm gonna repeat that. So we have someone in the audience who is curious when she experiences FOMO, the fear of missing out. How often are we really spending time still continuously learning at this point in our careers?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Essentially, every day, always with everything and anything. If something looks fun, I'm gonna try it. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Yeah, I got a slightly different answer. No, I don't try everything. There are certain things that resonate with me, and I feel like I could explore those things forever. So for me, it's like your answer. I do what I want, yeah, and sometimes it's being open, and sometimes it's me saying, No, not today. I'm sure it's amazing. I might be missing out. Uh I'm okay missing out because if I take the time, if I take that time away, I'm gonna be missing out on what where my heart really wants to go.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

That and discernment, right? Yeah, like using your discernment into what your heart's like, yeah, no, that's not for me, or yes, I'm trying that.

SPEAKER_05 27:17

Yeah. So notice that the the the pieces there. Like I love, I love these answers because it's like the the full yes is what you're looking for. That full yes is your heart's pulling you forward into the next right step, right? And so I feel like that doesn't that that spontaneous, inspired, intuitive pull doesn't end. You know, I feel like if you're if you're in your practice, like you're listening to the intuition, you're still gonna get those divine sparks of like, and now this.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

And I think looking for repetition. So it's like, yeah, when we have limited time and resources, we're trying to direct our energy into investing, learning something, you have to realize what a commitment it is. Do I actually have the time to invest in it? Do I have the financial resources to invest in it? Am I gonna stick with it if I choose it? Or am I gonna, you know, get distracted or like find the next thing? And so say, okay, I'm interested in this, table it. Opportunity comes up again. Okay, I'm interested in this. Is it the right time? Or yeah, I'm not interested in that anymore. It's like you guys have said, you know, it's the discernment because we can't do everything and we might as well do fewer things and do them well.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

You know what you're saying, Mariah, makes me think there's there's a diagnostic that we could take from a lot of what we did this today. We can ask that of each of our chakras. We can say, Do I want to do this? Ask it from a root chakra perspective, ask it from this, ask it from this, and then see what the counsel of your chakras come up with. And if it's resounding throughout, then it's certain. But even if it's a mix, you may decide, hey, I really my heart's drawn, I'm gonna follow my heart. Uh I, you know, I need to be more ground, I can't afford it, you know. I gotta listen to my bass.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah, I love that. For me, I I guess my my energy is a little bit more chaotic. And so I'm more like um, you know, the things that I'm drawn to don't always come with clarity, truth, and excitement. The things that sometimes I'm drawn to come with discomfort. And so what I have to do is um notice that discomfort. And is this a message of this isn't for me? Or is this a message of this is for me and it's gonna be uncomfortable because it's time to grow, right? And and I think the other two, like even the question around FOMO, right? To me, I hear your soul saying, I'm fucking ready. It's time, it's time for expansion, it's time for growth, it's time to start taking those steps, even if there's a little bit of fear there, right? And so it's like kind of like what everybody said here was spend some time with yourself around the tugs that you're receiving and have that discernment, right? Is this a fear-based response because it's gonna help me expand? Is this a fear-based response? Because this just isn't where what's for me right now. And then the same with the pull, because sometimes if we're only going into spaces that feel soft and gentle and amazing, like that could also be a protection, right? A comfort to you, you know, and just know if you have FOMO, that means you're ready. And I love all of that, and how how luxurious you are to have space to decide.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

So um, yeah, that's I love that. I love the the being ready aspect of that. Yeah. Um I have done, I've studied lots of things. I've done performance and I really love musical theater. I love creating, I love performing and and what have you. I also love doing what I'm doing now, and I think it's the you know, that belief that why do we have to choose one or the other? And for the longest time, I I was able to, I still, you know, dabble in performance. I still like I never benched it. It was it's just there for me to pick up whenever I like. And it's the same with like the spirituality. I was, I had a main job. We've always worked two jobs, or we're studying and we're working. Doesn't mean that we're giving up on anything, it just means that we're doing what we need to do, and that's very similar to what you were saying, Mariah. That you just make that discernment of this is what it's gonna take to make sure that I do the thing that I want to do.

Grounding Through Stress With Ritual

SPEAKER_05 32:12

Yeah, love that. All right, our next question How do you ground yourself through stress to reach to the higher self? How do you ground yourself through stress to reach to your higher self?

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Well, it's truly about taking care of yourself and having that cup full, right? So, what are the steps you need to take for yourself to be able to have the resilience to move through the stress or to be with the stress simultaneously, right? Because we can hold all that at the same time. And and using those tools. I mean, it's tools.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

First, you got to recognize when you are stressed. And I think most of the stress that we experience in modern society puts us in nervous system overdrive to where we're always operating at a level of stress and we normalize it.

SPEAKER_06 33:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

And so I think today we worked a lot with breath. You know, we were we were grounding, we were doing these practices that we can use as tools. But first you got to recognize, oh, I'm stressed right now. So my heart's beating fast, or like I'm frantic, I can't think clearly. I keep running into things because I'm moving too quickly. So first you have to notice, and then you can take a moment, breathe, and then hopefully we have enough tool tools that we can choose what to do to help ourselves out of it.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

I think sometimes with stress, there's a temptation to use a stress response to fight stress. Fight stress. So that's gonna only create more stress. So part of it is a long process of learning to accept whatever it is that's causing the stress as a welcome part of who you are, and that is easier said than done. I don't think that's something you just do overnight. I think a lot of these practices are meant to be practices because you keep working at them so that you learn to accept that that is welcome. And so it doesn't, so you no longer are trying to get rid of stress, you're learning to say, hey, stress is part of it. I'm alive. Of course, I'm alive. I'm gonna have tension, I'm gonna have friction in this world, I'm gonna have tension with people, people are gonna get sick, people are gonna die around me, I'm gonna have problems making money, right? These things are gonna be part of life. Can you find that that that's okay to be okay with the this as being part of who you are and recognizing that's not all you are, recognizing that there's this whole other nurturing, loving, sweet, moving side. And when you get that, I feel like you can relax in your stress, and that's a long process, and I believe breath is the beginning of it, and the noticing and everything Mariah was saying, I think is are the beginning pieces of that, and it's it's a journey that we're all on.

SPEAKER_04 35:24

Sometimes you just can't control the things that are happening around you, and sometimes the stress that is being caused is because of an external thing that you cannot change, because it would mean that you're controlling another person's actions, and that's not okay, you don't want that to happen to you, even if you wanted to. So in those moments, in that like that pure radical acceptance that you cannot control the things around you, and by accepting that fact, you can let go of the strain and the worry of whoever or whatever is causing it, and like you said, sitting in a place of accepting that you're stressed about it and that there's nothing you can do about it. And I in these moments I always call it it's a go-eat chocolate moment because you know, just focusing on the thing that's bothering you right now is just gonna make it grow in you. It may not make it grow it externally, it is what it is, but it will make it grow in you, so you may as well go do something that you like while it goes sorts itself out.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

To me, this question like almost circles back to the original question, the first question about grace, right? And love. And you know, and I think in my own journey, when those really big reactive moments happen, like the greatest gift I can give myself is some grace, right? First grace. Well, I think first for me is anchoring into the concept that it's all for me, right? It is all for me every moment, finding the truth and claiming the truth of it, you know, and then having grades and curiosity. If I'm stressed, it means there's some information coming in for me. Now it might be an external source that I'm picking up on, it might not be mine, but it might be mine, and in some ways, if it's plugging into me, it is mine, it's a little bit, yeah. Right. So there are so many beautiful ways, I think, to be grounded. And for me, um, just grace is a big part of that.

SPEAKER_05 37:54

I love all of these answers, and going back to the the question is like, how do I move through the stress so I can ground, so I can get to a higher state of being. And I I part for me is is finding a practice for yourself. It doesn't matter, I don't really care what practice it is. It's the um having a go-to ritual, a go-to practice, a go-to something that you know works for you. And I think that that is so varied by personality and by personhood that um that journey to find what works for you takes some time. It's just like the second question of like, we have all of these different pathways we can go. And when we can figure out, I know that me at the beginning of when I come into a room, if I can take three breaths, it's gonna help center me. And it's almost like muscle memory. Like, I can take my breath and find my center. And from that place, I can move into meditation, move into teaching, move into fill in the blank, and I'm gonna be able to be in a more centered space. So it's like, how do we find our rituals and our practices so that we can start there knowing that it's gonna ground us? So then we have the foundation to move the energy from root to crown.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

Ritual, the power of ritual, right? So if you do those rituals and you build them energetically with purpose and intention, then you're literally telling your body that this is what we're doing. Yeah. And the more you do it, your body will energetically becomes like that neural pathway, right? That groove that gets deeper. That's right, right? That it becomes an energetic pathway so that you might even just walk into the space where you typically do your ritual and your body starts doing it automatically. Right. It it is the power of ritual, and then bringing that out into the world with you too, right?

SPEAKER_05 39:59

Right. I think that's where the transition is. Like we start with the practice, we start with the ritual, we start with a thing. Yeah. And then the more you do it, then it's like, oh, well, now I'm in the grocery store and it's still with me.

SPEAKER_06 40:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:12

Right. It kind of overflows into the everyday. I love you guys. Um, any final questions from anyone online, anyone out here before anyone for each other before we wrap up? Because I just think, wow, what beautiful voices we have here. And I'm so in gratitude that like we all have come from very different backgrounds and journeys. And look at how much wisdom is showing up that it all resonates, you know. And I just um I'm just so grateful. I'm just so grateful that we are building this beautiful community of voices and honoring each other's voices and experiences and practices that it just um it makes me it makes my heart feel expansive.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

So you're saying we're the best, and you should take our modalities.

SPEAKER_05 41:10

I love all of your modalities because I do. I don't think there's anyone here I have so alive. Yeah, so um take that. Know that you can contact any of these beautiful people if you want to practice their modalities. Maybe that's how we finish. Can we go through and just say how can we contact or take next steps in the modalities that you practice? Do we want to start at the end and move this way this time?

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Oh, okay.intimacycadre.org. That might be hard to spell. So just remember, Jim McDonald. Uh I'm also through the Bozeman Spiritual Society. So you could find me easily through that website as well. And uh yeah, my tantra work as well. You can find all of all of that good stuff through that.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

Um, I am Lacey Gang and Bach here with Mountain Witch. So you can come into my store with Mountain Witch and Bozeman. I can also be found on my website is mountainwitchmt.com. Um, and my email is mountainwitchmt at gmail.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

And I'm Lou Ray Black. You can find me at shiftinwordwithlou.com as well as at vibrantlivesmt.com in Dillon, Montana. And I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

I am Lauren Sitzma, and you can go to etherectide.com. And uh best to go on Facebook because I'm always uh posting different events that I'm doing. I'm with the Bozeman Spiritual Society as well, and that is where I also operate um classes. Um, I'm doing vocal alchemy at the moment, so vocal toning, um, most Wednesdays and on Mondays I'm doing uh psychic development classes.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

My name's Mariah Reese. You can find me online at Mariah Reese.com and learn more about my services there. If you are looking for some uh kindness and love through the form of Thai Yoga Therapy, I offer that as well as other modalities to help you on your wellness journey.

SPEAKER_05 43:41

Beautiful. And I'm Christine Renee. You can find me for my local Bozeman stuff at the boseman spiritual society.org website. And I also am over at Mon um help me out. What's my website, you guys? Moonrisinginstitute.com. It's been a day. So thank you. Thank you everyone for joining. Lauren for putting on this amazing event. For everyone who came, we send so much waves of energy out into the ethers and we can't wait for the next one. So stay tuned. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to today's show, the Wisdom Rising Podcast is sponsored by Moonrising Shamanic Institute. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting app and be the first to know when we release a new episode. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Moonrising Institute, or visit our website, Moonrising Institute.com. Once again, thanks for sharing space with us today. And until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.